Requiem Of A Failed Hero

Their forms, swathed in ebony hues, flickering with an otherworldly radiance.

Cloaked in nebulous veils that billowed with spectral whispers, they exuded an aura of mystique and menace.

Eyes, brimming with secrets untold, glinting like fractured shards of the crimson moon, reflecting the enigmatic depths of void and darkness. Each death soldier wielded a weapon, a macabre extension of their ethereal essence, honed to cleave through the fabric of reality itself.

Silence hung in the air, pregnant with the impending clash between the two unsightly entities, a monstrous ferocity of ants in their numbers covering the landscape like a plague, and the army of darkness cladded in the cold embrace of darkness in its whole.

The ant monsters with their chitinous exoskeletons gleamed with an eerie luminescence, assembled, their mandibles clacked in anticipation, the army of darkness with their ethereal forms undulating like inky tendrils, ready to engulf everything in their path.

As the clash erupted, the realm was swallowed by a tempest of fury and darkness. Each death warrior moved with a grace that defied mortal comprehension, their steps were a haunting dance upon the battlefield.

With lethal precision, they weaved through the ant monsters, their weapons slicing through the air with a whistling lament.

The air crackled with the effect of apocalypse as the two sides were drenched in an intense battle with each other, as the death soldiers swung their weapons in divers fancy, so did the ants also– gnashing their mandibles and snatching off whatever part of the soldiers they could. Although it all seemed to be useless because almost immediately the soldier world regenerate again. By the sudden and shocked reaction of the ants, one could tell that had a certain level of intelligence but I could still not up to the intelligence that their king had.

The power he possesses after being granted a name.

In the Surreal theater of war, the veil between reality and the ethereal quickly blurred.

Death soldiers endlessly lunging and parrying, with their spectral forms pulsating with an eerie effulgence. The ant monsters, stalwarts of the realm, held their ground, their determination a beacon amidst the encroaching darkness.

Raith stood still, with his three mighty fighters behind him, like generals observing the tide of the battle for when to make their mark. Certainly, the soldier had improved. Raith’s eyes were met with contentment as he watched them– relating them to the first time he used them in the golem dungeon, they just were so used to dying although dying seemed to be a source of strength for them but it sapped him of dark energy to maintain them any further.

But all that had somehow been managed now because they don’t die that much and… he had a lot of energy compared to before. Although he still thinks little of it for the day that he will wield an army in their millions, he couldn’t help but wonder how much dark energy to maintain them.

And so he just wanted to get more energy– which led him to the next phase of his decision to step in.

The ant monsters despite being endlessly pulverized by Raith’s warriors, there was no end to them, they certainly crawled out of the holes, every time. And soon the game of numbers was beginning to have the upper hand.

Raith’s army was beginning to die a lot more than usual causing his dark energy to be consumed tremendously.

However, Raith had a perfect remedy for this.

‘I’ve been looking for now to try out this skill’ He looked down and brought his hands from his pocket.

“Take me higher Noir.”

Even though the wyvern had not manifested itself before now, Raith was lifted into the sky by an irregular shape of darkness that took the form of the wyvern as it reached the sky.

Towering above all of them, Raith could see clearly the numbers– they still stretched far toward the horizon where the dark clouds seem to come to terms with the barren-hole-ridden land.

[Death Parade] ．𝙘𝙤𝙢

– A mixture of darkness and death, a mass destruction skill that converts the soul of every living organism within 1000m to dark energy.

He stretched forth his hand from above and–

“Death parade.”

WHAM!

In a swift instance, small white glowing balls appeared in the air, harvested from the thousands of monsters that were below Raith. He was amazed by the effectiveness of the skill.

Even he did not think that it would be able to take their souls. The ants died immediately their souls came out and floated in the air, filling every space.

[You have gained 44,500 souls]

[Do you want to convert souls to dark energy?]

“Yes”

All the glowing white light surged together like a whirlwind and entered Raith like the dark heavens were giving him some newfound power.

[You have gained 4,500 dark energy]

Raith opened his eyes, filled with vigor and his skin fresh and glinting with black streaks as the souls of monsters he had absorbed were converted to dark energy.

He could feel the expanse increase inside of him.

“Alright I think I can manage to bring squad two out now–

He paused sharply as a certain ant finally decided to grace him with its presence.

What he had been waiting for all the while.

The red ant was jamming its mandible with anger and frustration. It had not been expected that there would be a being capable of rivaling the strength of his king. The thought of the human lasting this long annoyed him and he was hating on himself for making things drag out so long.

“I should have just attacked with the first squad and taken the human’s head to my king.” The monster muttered to itself as it spread out its red transparent wings and fluttered them, rising towards the sky.

Raith could plainly see the blue scarf from his distance and was able to confirm his speculation.

“I was not wrong, it really is the Bluezlion guild crest,” Raith said.

“How do you have that?” Raith asked the monster as if floated in front of Noir’s face, fluttering its wings endlessly to maintain its stability in the air.

“Uh? A human can speak to me. Ah! Have I finally become as smart as my king? I thought my king was the only one granted such brilliance to be able to converse with humans but it seems that I too…” The ant spoke with a shaky voice, covering his lower face with one hand as though he was going to cry due to the new realization that he just had.

“This guy… is he crazy?”

“I believe he is. Shall I restore his mind with a slap of my claws on his face, my lord?” Noir asked, his thick tone reverberating through the clouds.

“Don’t play Noir, if you slap him, his head will probably fly off.” Raith mused, chuckling.

“Will that not be a good thing, my lord?”

“No, it won’t,” Raith replied firmly, wiping the soft smile off his face. “…how will I ask him questions if you kill him.”

“Ah, I see. Forgive my impudence, my lord.”

“It’s fine,” Raith replied, his gaze refocusing on the red humanoid ant that was flying before him.

The monster’s physiological composition amazed him. He could tell by the features that it was an ant just like the rest of them but it was different– the others were bigger than normal ants, gigantic, but this one was standing like a human with four hands, two legs, compound eyes gruesomely looking at Raith from that ant shaped head.

“No matter how much I think about it. He is a marvelous creature. I’d love to add him to my collection of generals. See what rank he can amount to after I extract him.” Raith mumbled as he looked at his hand. Getting ready to manifest his sword and begin an interesting fight.

But before any more seconds.

Jarvis’ long sword came spinning, taking along with it one of the ant’s hands which it had raised as it entered a frenzy and was about to start its attack on Raith.

“Ah, nice. It hit will. You should know this, we can’t allow any monster to fight our lord when we are not preoccupied.”

Kortopi and Jarvis nodded to Crimson obediently. It was weird to see them get along but it was also because Crimson had managed to convince them not to allow any man to reach Raith without having to pass through them.

He vividly put forth to the naive beings that for their loyalty to truly be acknowledged by Raith for them to truly be acknowledged by Raith then they had to take matters into their own hands.

And it sounded quite reasonable.

To them at the very least.

“What the fuck did he do?” Raith glared down at Jarvis who bowed ninety degrees the moment his eyes met with Raith’s. He seemed happy about what he did, like a servant that has achieved a great deal for his master.

Crimson was right beside him with hands folded and Kortopi was also glaring with admiration.

“These bastards won’t let me have fun now?”

Whereas all Raith just wanted to do was fight, and test out his upgraded sword.